Sunday, January 24, 2010

Mmm...Still-Beating Cobra Heart.

Back to food instead of politics! I finally finished "A Cook's Tour." Loved it! Anthony Bourdain has a really great writing style and his description of his adventures are great! He brings to light everything that I enjoy about travelling and eating. I love food, no surprise there, but when I travel, even if it's within my own state, I make it a point to try local specialties. I ask the locals what they recommend. For example, when I was working in northwest Kansas last spring, I drove through Plainville. After I stopped to get gas, I asked the attendant where I should get lunch. He recommended the the local livestock salebarn and he was absolutely right. Sure, the restaurant smelled like lots and lots of cows, but my cheeseburger was extremely fresh and the steak fries were perfectly cooked and salted. One of the best I've had. That's what I appreciate about Bourdain in this book. As he travels through Vietnam, Cambodia, Morocco, Great Britain, Japan, and Scotland, he makes it a point to eat with the locals and to eat things that most tourists will never even have the opportunity to try if they don't make an effort to interact with the local people. I think that's the biggest point to take away is that food is something that connects us all. We bond with people that we eat with. We gain insight into their culture, tradition, and everyday lives. If you don't have the opportunity to eat at someone's home and instead just eat Western style buffets or fast food, you're really missing out. He describes it as going to Egypt and neglecting to see the Pyramids, and I couldn't agree more. Next time, my top culinary epiphanies...